SENATE RESOLUTION calling for Iran, Syria SANCTIONS & supporting Israel

[Nothing Without Hope]

completely in its attacks in Gaza and Lebanon. It was ALREADY PASSED by a voice vote, so there is no accountability.

NOW THE HOUSE IS SET TO VOTE ON ITS OWN VERSION OF THIS CRAVEN, AGGRESSIVE RESOLUTION IN OUR NAME.

Go to THIS THREAD for more info on the upcoming HOUSE RESOLUTION:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1674185
thread title (7-19-06): ACTION ALERT: Oppose House Resolution Supporting Israel's Attacks!

And read what the Senate has ALREADY passed:
You'll note that they call for sanctions on Syria and Iran and are clearly laying the groundwork for more. Israel has absolute open season to do anything it wants with the US arms our taxes have paid for:

Here is the pdf file at CSPAN from which I took these image files for easier viewing:
http://www.c-span.org/pdf/06071_%20Israel_Lebanon_Resolution.pdf



------------------------------------------------------------------------

[bullimiami]

1. i am seriously wondering if I belong

in the democratic party.

[liberalmuse]

2. Congress is a f*cking joke!

I truly detest our "representatives" in DC right now. I hope they go down in history as the most heinous, ineffective Congress ever.

[IndyOp]

4. I don't want to JOIN the Democratic Party - I want to USE it to reach

progressive goals. Kick them in the ass to move them left while they are in office. Then elect the most progressive candidates possible. Then kick them in the ass to move them left...

The Religious Right-Wing whackjobs despised the Republican Party of 20-30 years ago - they would not vote. So they USED it to get what they wanted.

The Corporatists despised the Republican Party of Theodore Roosevelt and other socially responsible republicans - so they USED it to get what they wanted.

Despair is not an option.

[alarimer]

23. I want a pro-peace party

this is sickening.

[originalpckelly]

14. AIPAC Democrats...

I think that fits all of them well.

[Nothing Without Hope]

3. all too related - ***WaPo article on the powerful pro-Israel LOBBY***:

The neocon dogs have been howling for attack on Iran and Syria. They are leading this charge. Why haven't the Dems spoken out? Are they ALL in the pro-Israel lobby's pocket? The Wash Post has an article on the political power of this lobby to get what Israel wants no matter what it does to the US and the rest of the world:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/AR2006071201627_pf.html

A Beautiful Friendship?
In search of the truth about the Israel lobby's influence on Washington

By Glenn Frankel
Sunday, July 16, 2006; W13

(snip)

Thanks to the work of the lobby and its allies, Israel gets more direct foreign aid -- about $3 billion a year -- than any other nation. There's a file cabinet somewhere in the State Department full of memoranda of understanding on military, diplomatic and economic affairs. Israel gets treated like a NATO member when it comes to military matters and like Canada or Mexico when it comes to free trade. There's an annual calendar full of meetings of joint strategic task forces and other collaborative sessions. And there's a presidential pledge, re-avowed by Bush in the East Room, that the United States will come to Israel's aid in the event of attack.

On Capitol Hill the Israel lobby commands large majorities in both the House and Senate. Polls show strong public support for Israel -- a connection that has grown even deeper after the September 11 attacks. The popular equation goes like this: Israelis equal good guys, Arabs equal terrorists. Working the Hill these days, says Josh Block, spokesman for the premier Israeli lobbying group known as AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, "is like pushing at an open door."

Not everyone believes this is a good thing. In March two distinguished political scientists -- Stephen Walt from Harvard and John Mearsheimer from the University of Chicago -- published a 42-page, heavily footnoted essay arguing that the Bush administration's support for Israel and its related effort to spread democracy throughout the Middle East have "inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized U.S. security."

The professors claim that our intimate partnership with Israel is both dangerous and unprecedented. "Other special interest groups have managed to skew foreign policy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as far from what the national interest would suggest," they argue. They go on to say that the war in Iraq "was due in large part to the Lobby's influence," and that the same combine is "using all of the strategies in its playbook" to pressure the administration into being aggressive and belligerent with Iran. The bottom line: "Israel's enemies get weakened or overthrown, Israel gets a free hand with the Palestinians, and the United States does most of the fighting, dying, rebuilding and paying."

(snip)

For the Senate vote on this resolution, there was not even a recording of the votes - it was a voice vote. No accountability at all - at least not to the US public. It's obvious that there is accountability, but to their masters, not to us.

[MADem]

5. Well, I condemn Hezbollah and their state sponsors

They started this shit. Not the Israelis. They crossed the border, they killed the soldiers and captured two others, and they started lobbing rockets into northern Israel.

And there are likely 241 families of dead Marines who were murdered by those bastards decades back, who wish they'd been taken care of sooner.

And the widow of this guy is probably behind this resolution as well: http://ojc.org/higgins/bio/index.html

[manic expression]

26. Forgetting something?

Like the part where Lebanon DIDN'T do ANY of that? Like the part where Hezbollah ISN'T Lebanon? Like the part where a kidnapping DOESN'T warrant the levelling of a nation?

Oh, and don't forget that Israel created the circumstances which led to the "original" action. Look at what Israel was doing in Palestine, look at what people were doing in their prisons, look at the occupation of Lebanon and the harassment which followed.

[Emit]

28. We all know it started long ago

But for the record, other accounts of recent actions differ from the one you posted:

The conflict in Gaza started on June 8 when the Israelis assassinated a Hamas military officer. Then on June 9, there was the terrible Israeli attack on a family picnicking on the Gaza beach in which eight people died. The entire Arab world watched video of a little girl running along the beach looking at the bodies of her family.

Hamas started launching rockets in response, with their home-made rockets against Israel in reaction to this violence. Never the less there were thirty more deaths on the Gaza side due to Israeli artillery. Then on the 24th of June we have Israel crossing into Gaza and taking two Palestinian prisoners, names unknown, who have never been heard from again. Finally on June 25 we have the Hamas attack and capture corporal Shalit who everyone knows from the extensive news coverage.

So there were many events, much more complex than the simple capture of prisoners, on both sides. There is also a much larger story in Lebanon. In June, in the south of Lebanon the Lebanese Army captured a Mossad operative group of Abu Rafeh who had assassinated various people in Hezbollah in 2004 and 1999. So if one is only focusing on isolated events, you might think this is all about kidnapping. But really the conflict has been building on both borders.

http://irmep.org/Defaults.asp

[cantstandbush]

6. B ut these are the same people who gave the blank check on Iraq.

What did you expect?

[malaise]

15. Bingo n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

7. kick n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. kick n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

9. Truly disgusting - ***WaPo article on these resolutions:***

The politicians lick the hand that feeds them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/18/AR2006071801415.html

Congress Is Giving Israel Vote of Confidence
Both Parties Back Ally, Court Jewish Support

By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 19, 2006; Page A05

Democratic and Republican congressional leaders are rushing to offer unalloyed support for Israel's offensive against Hezbollah fighters, reflecting a bipartisan desire to not only defend a key U.S. ally but also solidify long-term backing of Jewish voters and political donors in the United States, according to officials and strategists in both parties.

With Israel intensifying its air and artillery attacks on Lebanon and warning of a protracted war, the Senate yesterday unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution endorsing Israel's military campaign and condemning Hezbollah and its two backers, Iran and Syria. A few hours earlier, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) delivered his most strident defense of Israel since the conflict erupted a week ago. The House is expected to pass a similarly pro-Israel resolution today.

At the same time, several candidates in highly competitive races are touting their unequivocal backing of Israel. Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.), who faces a tough reelection race against a Jewish Democrat, introduced his own resolution charging that "both Syria and Iran are directly responsible for this act of terrorism and should be held accountable." In Minnesota, Rep. Mark Kennedy, the Republican Senate candidate, is criticizing what his campaign calls Democratic candidate Amy Klobuchar's "deafening silence" on the conflict, calling her a "timid soul." Klobuchar, however, has staked out a similarly pro-Israel position.

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman punctuated the day with a speech to Christians United for Israel last night, declaring that "today, we are all Israelis."

(snip)

[mmonk]

10. "today, we are all Israelis."

No, I'm an American you asswipe Mehlman. It's time we had our own foreign policy.

[malaise]

11. Meanwhile Europe has split with the US and is calling

for an immediate ceasefire.

[mmonk]

12. Correction, "today, I'm a European".

[k_jerome]

18. the same europe that stood by during the...

holocaust. count me out of that group.

[Rex]

13. Hey Congress, butt the fuck out!

So when we get hit again like 911, will we be able to hold Congress partially responsible? This bill only strengthens the 'terrorists' hands against us! Is Congress trying to recruit more terrorists?! Can't we protest this on grounds of endangering US lives or national security??

[mmonk]

17. Sue them for reckless endangerment.

[raysr]

16. We have no representation

they will do as they please and we can go "fuck ourselves". We MUST develop a viable THIRD party.

[k_jerome]

19. you are on the wrong board then. nt.

[manic expression]

27. No

s/he isn't. If you actually cared to read the DU statement, perhaps you would've known that.

[Nothing Without Hope]

20. kick n/t

[LSK]

21. i dont see it

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/ROLL_300.asp

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_109_2.htm

:shrug:

[alarimer]

22. They're supporting a country that bombs milk factories?

lovely, just lovely. Why can't they just say nothing? They do not have to come out on one side or the other. This is pure pandering.

[Lerkfish]

24. I guess I really don't understand why this is necessary?

do we have to tie up our own congress, preventing it from doing the job we elected them to, to cheerlead another country's policy?
how about OUR policies? How about voting rights, How about investigating NSA spying? How about any of a long list of things that congress should be doing, right frickin now, instead of tabling it to vote on whether we side with Isreal or not?

They had to vote on that? Does it really matter, no matter which way the vote goes?

I weep for this nation.

[katinmn]

25. Thanks. I would nominate but I got here too late.

I'm really saddened by our government's pro-war stance.

[Emit]

29. "Israel’s Foreign Policy Directive to the United States..."

From Intro:

This paper provides an overview of the policy implementation of “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm”. (http://www.israeleconomy.org/strat1.htm) Some of the events and trends that contribute to success or failure of the plan predate ACB by many years. And although many ACB authors ascended to new heights of political power in the U.S., the success or failure of the policies cannot be solely ascribed to them. However, ACB policies are, for the most part, extremely damaging to U.S. interests. The ACB framework is useful for explaining the motives driving the complete failure of U.S. interests in the Middle East and the triumph of politics and lobbies over statecraft.

Implementation Assessment of "A Clean Break":

a. Increase Support in the U.S. Congress

It is political suicide for a member of the U.S. Congress to strongly oppose policy positions of Zionist lobbies operating in the United States. Former president George H. W. Bush put it best when he declared that opposing the Zionist lobby in favor of a Palestinian State was the right thing to do, but came “at a hell of price. “


The defining demonstration of this power predates ACB. The lobby converted its most powerful aid opponent by rallying massive campaign contributions to defeat North Carolina senator Jesse Helms. Pro-Israel political action committees poured an awe inspiring $222,342 into the campaign of Helms' opponent, North Carolina Governor James Hunt. Hunt's campaign secretary proclaimed that "Senator Helms has the worst anti-Israel record in the United States Senate and supporters of Israel throughout the country know it."

After the scare of almost losing reelection, Helms announced that he would exempt from cuts the more than one-third of total U.S. foreign aid going to Israel since such aid was "in the strategic interest of the U.S." He also became an ardent and comical supporter of moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and worked diligently to increase the appropriations for Israel from the Defense Department, the State Department and half a dozen other different federal agency budgets.


A survey of recently introduced legislation indicates that Congress is repaying the debt to Israel by internalizing Israel’s conflicts and putting U.S. resources at Israel’s disposal...

Cont'd:http://irmep.org/Policy_Briefs/3_27_2003_Clean_Break_or_Dirty_War.html